Bayliss: "Kawasaki and Sykes can do it again this year"
The 3 time world champion interviewed by WorldSBK.com at the WDW.
Troy Bayliss has been watching closely this year’s World Superbike action from home in Australia and the three time WSBK Champion was impressed by the level of the field and the progress made by all riders, even though he reckons Tom Sykes and Kawasaki are still the favourites for the title heading into the last stretch of the season.
“All the riders are riding quite well and all the marques are improving” Bayliss told WorldSBK.com at the World Ducati Week. “Kawasaki is very strong now, I really like Sykes and I think he can win again this year but I also think there are still four guys who can still possibly do it. The championship is coming strong again and this is really nice to see.”
Despite having retired from racing at the end of 2008, Bayliss is still helping Ducati as a test rider for both their WSBK and MotoGP machines. Even though his last test aboard the 1199 Panigale R was affected by bad weather, the 45 year old Australian thinks the two-cylinder Italian machine has made significant progress over the course of the year: “The Panigale has made some good steps now, when I last tested the bike I had very little track time due to bad weather. I didn’t really get to find the full potential of the bike and honestly I need to have more than one day to find how I use to ride the bike, I was a little bit rusty. It was nice to work again with some of the guys I worked with in the past and I’m looking forward to doing some testing again in the future.”
